The Association of VA Surgeons Presidential address: what business are we in? John L. Tarpley, M.D. a,b, *, Margaret J. Tarpley, M.L.S. b a Surgical Service, Veterans Affairs TVHS, Nashville, TN, USA; b Vanderbilt University Department of Surgery, Nashville, TN, USA The Veterans Affairs (VA) motto “. . . to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan” and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) motto “To serve all with skill and fidelity” enjoin the VA surgeon to address the needs of our veterans and others. Founded in 1967, the Association of VA Surgeons (AVAS) initiated annual scientific meetings in 1977 to encourage best practices among VA surgeons and to promote clinical care, education, and research. Near the centennial of the Flexner report (2010), VA surgeons need to renew our commitment in this era of the “businessification” of medi- cine and not be seduced to maximize short-term profits. Teaching should be intentional inside and outside the oper- ating room (OR), with a focus on reflection and deliberate practice. To serve our current and future patients and vet- erans, we need to mentor our residents and students to foster their development and to make their education a priority. Dr. Samuel Johnson commented, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” I hope to motivate and stimulate you and me to do what we know we need to do—to consciously and intentionally focus on the education of the surgical residents on our watches at our VA medical centers. In short: let’s be serious about resident education. What I will share is well known to you. I have no financial disclosures to announce. Additionally, there will be no original ideas, no P values, and no base-pair substitutions. I live by aphorisms, mottos, proverbs. The VA motto is “. . . to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.” This derives from Abraham Lincoln’s second Inaugural Address in 1865, arguably his greatest oration. Tom Russell, ACS Executive Director, shared with us the motto of ACS, Omnibus per artem fidemque prodesse (“To serve all with skill and fidelity”). The views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the Department of Veterans Affairs. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 615 322 1548; fax: +1 615 322 0689. E-mail address: John.tarpley@vanderbilt.edu Manuscript received May 6, 2009 John L. Tarpley, M.D. 0002-9610/$ - see front matter Published by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.amjsurg.2009.07.013 The American Journal of Surgery (2009) 198, 583–587